Floor rack hinge means



July 29, 1941'. c, BROWN I 2,250,570

FLOOR RACK HINGE MEANS I Filed Feb. 15, 1959 j .22 4 A9 2 34/34 2 v m m /W (72? m Patented July 29, 1941 FLOOR RACK HINGE MEANS Charles D. Brown, Bloomsburg, Pa., assignor to American Car and Foundry Company, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New Jersey Application February 15, 1939, Serial No. 256,593

6 Claims.

This invention relates to hinges in general and in particular to hinges for use with floor racks or other means which must swing through an angle of approximately 360.

In refrigerator car service floor racks are provided to hold the lading in spaced relation to the car floor in order to permit circulation of air through the lading. These floor racks are hinged to the car structure permitting the racks to be raised during cleaning of the car. In order to properly handle the floor racks it is desirable that certain portions thereof, such as the racks at thedoors, be hinged to swing through an arc of approximately 360. Certain prior constructions have permitted of such movement of the racks but in each instance the floor rack stringers during swinging of the racks would ride upon the floor covering, eventually breaking the same and permitting moisture to drain into the insulation, spoiling its insulating value and causing the wood floor members to decay. It is an object, therefore, of the present invention to provide a hinge for floor racks which will prevent the racks from swinging on the floor covering during hinging movement of the racks.

A further object of the invention is the provision of a hinge for floor racks, which hinge is provided with a double pivot and a supporting portion preventing dropping of the racks onto the floor covering at the hinge area.

A still further object of the invention is the provision of a hinge for floor racks, which hinge will be directly supported on the floor and which is provided with antifriction means preventing any injury to the floor during movement of the hinge.

These and other objects of the invention will be apparent to persons skilled in the art from a study of the following description and accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is an elevational view of the improved hinge connecting a pair of floor rack sections;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the construction shown in Fig. 1;

3 is a plan view similar to Fig. 2 but with the rack boards removed to better disclose the hinge arrangement;

obtainable by swinging one of the rack elements through an arc of approximately 360, and

Fig. 8 is a view similar to Fig. 4 but showing a modification of the hinge element.

Referring now to the drawing. in detail, it will be seen that the improved hinge element. has been applied to floor rack members intended for use in refrigerato-r cars. It is customary in refrigerator cars to have a main rack A hinged to the car side wall and to which rack is hinged short gate sections B normally occupying a portion of the area at the door opening. Each of the racks A and. B are formed by a plurality of stringers 2 upon which are secured floor rack boards 4. In the present instance the ends of the floor stringers have the lower corner rounded as at B and merging into a relieved portion 8, insuring that the corners will not contact the floor covering under any condition. Each of the rack stringers has attached thereto,'by means of bolts or other securing devices 10, a hinge butt [2. Each of'these hinge butts is formed by a plate [4 to which is welded an angle shaped member [6 adapted to be bored in alignment with a hole in the plate [4 in order to receive hinge pin l8.

The hinge butt elements on adjacent rack stringers are connectedtogether by means of hinge element 20. This element is preferably formed as a drop forging and'of general H outline having one arm 22 of the H pierced as at 23 at the ends thereof in order to receive the pivot pins I8. The other arm 24 of thel-l formed hinge element may rest'directly on the floor covering but it is preferable that it be formed With a plate 26 providing increased bearing area to prevent injury to the floor covering. The ends of this bearing plate are curved as at 28in order to eliminate sharp corners and prevent any possibility of the hinge element gouging the floor covering during swinging of the rack. In order'to permit" the rack'being swung through an arc of 360 it is necessary to cut away, as at 30, a por tion of the end rack boards immediately above the hinge element. vThese end boards will be reinforced by means of metal plates 32 secured to welding thereto the footing member 26 with its ends ground to; provide the curved end surfaces.

Under certain circumstances it may be desirable to provide the H-shaped hinge elementwith antifriction devices, which devices Will prevent any possible injury'to the floor covering. These antifriction devices may be readily applied as shown in Fig. 8 by forming the hinge elementZO; of a pair of pressings, having the ends of the arms 24 deflected outwardly as at 40, thus positioning the'ends in spaced relation perm tting insertion and into the position shown in Fig. 6.

of antifriction rollers 42 carried on rods 44 extended through the deflected ends of the lower arm. The two halves of the element are, of course, securely attached together by any suitable means, such as welding or riveting, and may be reinforced by plate 46 attached to the hinge element and extending between the rollers, thus providing increased bearing area for the hinge element. It is obvious that this plate may be formed as a flange on the pressings or that the halves of the hinge element may be drop forged. In any event the rollers are so positioned that any rotative motion between the hinge element and floor will be about the antifricticn devices or rollers. I, I i i 7 The operation of the improved hinge device is as follows and assuming the parts in the position as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 An operator by lifting .the' rack section B will cause such rack to rotate about thehinge pin carried thereby to a position as shown in Fig. 5, in which position the shoulder of the endboard of rack B strikes the upper surface of the arm 22 of the H shaped -hinge element. During the lifting of the rack B to the position shownin Fig. 5;therehas been no motion; between the hingeelement and the floor :covering and dueto the. reliefof the stringers B they can not strike the floor covering. With the rack B in the position shown in Fig. 5 continued movement of therack will cause the hinge element, which is in effect now locked torack B, to rotate about the hinge pivot carriedyby rack A During this swingingthe foot of the hinge element may slide slightly upon the floor covering but such movement can not injure the covering since there are no sharp surfaces presented and since the motion is in such a direction asto prevent gouging. It is, of course, obvious that if the ,bperator lifts rack B slightly during its motion from the position of Fig. 5 to that of Fig. 6, there canbe no contact betweenthe hinge element and the floor covering, but since most operators will not lift the rack, it maybe; desirable to provide the hinge element with antifriction devices such as shown in Fig. 8, in which casethe motion between the hinge element and floor covering will be upon the antifriction devices or rollers. In case it is desired to nest the rack B into rack A it is only necessary for the rack B to beswung in a direction opposite from that justdescribed into the position shown by Fig. 7,.in which position the rack stringersnA; and B overlap each other. The overlapping of the stringers and nesting of the rack sections is permissible due to the offsetting of the stringers as clearly shown in Fig. 3.

The swinging of rack B 'fromtheposition shown in Fig. 1 to that shown in Fig. .6 is accomplished while therack A is resting upon the floor covering, but the swinging of rack B to the position shown in Fig. 7 can only be accomplished when tha rack Ais swung up against the car side wall during the cleaning of the car; l

While the invention has been described more or less in detail, it is obvious lthatvarious modifications and rearrangements of parts will'be apparent to persons skilled in the art and all such modifications and rearrangements of parts are contemplated as will come within thescope of the lfollowing claims What is claimed is: a i

1. Hinging means for floor racks comprising, a Ipair o'faligned floor racks having stringers normally'resting on a car floo'r, hinge butts secured to adjacent floor'rack stringers, a hinge element pivotally connected to said hinge butts and provided with a foot portion supporting said hinge element upon said floor, said hinge element being provided with anti-friction means secured to the foot portion and movable along said floor.

Y 2. Hinging means for floor racks comprising, a pair of aligned floor racks having stringers normally resting on a car floor, hinge butts secured to adjacent floor rack stringers, a hinge element substantially H shaped in outline having the ends of one arm pivotally connected to said hinge butts, and a foot portion carried by the other arm and supporting the hinge element upon said floor.

3. Hinging means for floor racks comprising, a pair of aligned floor racks having stringers normally resting on a car floor, hinge butts secured to adjacent floor rack stringers substantially at the upper edge thereof, a hinge element pivotally connecting said hinge-butts and provided with a foot portion substantially inthe plane the lower edge of said stringers, said foot portion nor; mally supporting the hinge element upon ,said floor, and antifriction means'secured to the foot portion and movable along said floor. during swinging of the hinge element. a 7 t 4 v v '4. Hinging means for floor racks comprising, a pair of aligned floor racks having stringers normally resting on a car floor, hinge butts secured to adjacent floor rack stringers, a single piece hinge element the opposite ends of which are pivotally connected to said hinge butts, while the intermediate portion thereof is disposed toward one side of the pivoted axes oi the ends. ard intermediate portion being provided with a bearing member supporting said hinge element upon the floor, and antifriction means carried by said element adjacent the ends of said bearing member and additionally supporting said hinge element upon the floor.

5. Hinging means for floor racks comprising, a pair of aligned floor racks having stringers normally resting on a car floor, hinge butts secured to adjacent floor rack'stringers substantially at the upper edge and adjacent the near ends thereof, a hinge element pivotally connecting said hinge butts, the connection between the hinge element and each hinge butt being so formed and arranged as to be capable of at least'l80'degrees of relative movement betweeneach hinge butt and the hinge element whereby said aligned -fi0or racks may have 360 degrees of movementrelative to each other, said hinge element being provided with a foot portion substantially in-the plane of the lower edgeof said stringers and nor mally supporting the hinge elementgupon said floor.

6. Hinging means for floor racks-comprising, a pair of aligned floor racks having misaligned stringers normally resting on a car-floor and supporting transversely extending rack boards, hinge butts secured to adjacent sides of adjacent floor rack stringers, a single piece hinge element ,the opposite ends of which are pivotally connected to said hinge butts, a portion ofthe hinge element intermediate the .hinge axes being'disposed upon one side of the plane of the pivot axes and being provided with a bearing portion supporting the hinge element upon the floor during at least a portion of the rotative movement of-the rack, the adjacent end rack boa rds being notched in line with the hinge element to receive the same and permit passage thereof during a relative rotation of the-racks. l I V v CHARLES D 'BROWN. 

